Lambeth Palace Library is very grateful to Muhammad Isa Waley, former curator of Persian and Turkish Collections at the British Library, for sharing with us his expertise on Lambeth’s Persian and Turkish manuscripts. Here, Dr Waley takes us through ten of the volumes from Sion College Library.
Dr Waley writes:
Among the rare holdings (since 1996) of the Library of Lambeth Palace is a group of manuscripts in Asian languages, ten of which are in Turkish or Persian. The present writer had the privilege of examining these volumes in April 1990, while they were preserved in the library of Sion College, an institution for the fellowship and education of Anglican clergy in London (see https://sioncollege.org/).
The origins of this small collection is unknown. By design or by good fortune, it has a degree of homogeneity and comprises works of considerable interest. The descriptions which follow, in which codicological data are kept to a minimum, are based on concise catalogue entries written during a single visit, with reference to brief (and largely accurate) descriptions in Latin. Links to the full catalogue entries are provided below. Here we will discuss the material under three subject categories: history (4 manuscripts), literature, i.e. belles-lettres (5), and Islamic law (1). Dates are given in two forms: hijrī (Islamic) and Common Era (AD).
History
Sion L40.2/OR5 Ottoman Turkish. el-Cild üs-sālis Tevārīh eṭ-Ṭaberī (sic)
Volume 3 of an anonymous translation of Tārīkh al-rusul wa al-mulūk (History of Prophets and Kings), the great general history in Arabic by Muḥammad ibn Jarīr al-Ṭabarī (d. 311/923). This section covers the period from the Prophet Yūnus (Jonah) to the birth of Abū Ṭālib, paternal uncle and protector of the Prophet Muḥammad. The translation was made not from the Arabic but from a Persian version. It was commissioned by Aḥmed Paşa, an Ottoman official, in the early 10th/16th century. Most extant manuscripts contain only one volume.
No colophon; datable to the later 11th/17th or earlier 12th/18th century and in naskhī script. According to the Latin description, it is incomplete at the beginning and end (‘sine principio et fine’); but in fact there is an illuminated opening page with a heading in blue and gold (image below). 230 folios. Fine Ottoman binding: deep red morocco with impressed floral medallions and flap.
Sion L40.2/OR6 Ottoman Turkish. Donated by Joh. Luke, 1675. İskendernāme
An epic poem that is among the very earliest composed in Ottoman. It is based on Niẓāmī’s Iskandarnāma, the renowned Persian version of the Hellenistic Romance of Alexander ‘the Great’. By Tāc-ed-dīn Aḥmed, called Aḥmedī, of Germiyan (d. 815/1413).
Undated: 9th/15th century. Beneath the blank colophon space is a later inscription in Persian with the date 11 Jumādā al-Ūlà 824/15 May 1421; the actual date of copying, however, may well be later. Folio 1 is a later replacement. 250 folios. Brown morocco binding.
Sion L40.2/OR13 Ottoman Turkish. Tevārīh-i Ṭaberīnüñ dördinci cildi
The fourth volume of the Ottoman translation of al-Ṭabarī’s general history (see above, Sion L40.2/OR5), covering events from the birth of the Prophet Muḥammad to the Battle of Nihāwand (21/642). Lacking the last few folios.
Undated: 10th/16th or 11th/17th century. Cursive rıḳ’a script of poor quality. 15 lines. 230 folios. Binding: marbled paper laid over brown morocco.
Sion L40.2/OR14 Ottoman Turkish. Cild-i sānī-i Tevārīh-i Ṭaberī
The second volume of the Ottoman translation of al-Ṭabarī’s general history (see above, Sion L40.2/OR5). This part begins with the receipt by Khusraw Parvīz, Sasanian emperor of Iran, of a letter from the Prophet Muḥammad; it concludes with an account of the Umayyad caliph Hishām ibn ‘Abd al-Malik prior to his rule (105-125/724-743) as caliph.
Dated 1 Shawwāl 963/8 August 1556. 429 folios. Binding: worn Ottoman boards over brown morocco; flap lost but for the hinge.
Sion L40.2/OR11 Ottoman Turkish. Tevārīh-i nesl-i Āl-i ‘Osmān
A chronicle of the early Ottoman sultans, down to the reign of Mehmed II (835-886/1432-1481). By ‘Oruc Beg ibn ‘Ādil. This important account, which is fairly rare, is more usually called Tevārīh-i Āl-i ‘Osmān.
Dated 25 Şa‘bān 956/18 September 1549. Copied by Aḥmed ibn Meḥemmed el-Menemenci, 82 folios. European calf binding with gilt motifs and raised bands on spine.
Literary works
Sion L40.2/OR19 Persian Masnavī-i ma‘navī
The world-famous poem on Islamic mystical and ethical doctrine by the Sufi master and poet Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī (d. 672/1273). Dozens of copies exist; this must be among the twenty earliest. Many textual variants have been added in the margins, indicating collation with at least one other copy.
The manuscript has no colophon but is datable on palaeographical and codicological evidence to the middle or later 8th/14th century. It was probably produced in Asia Minor, where Rūmī lived for much of his life and the Mawlavī (Turkish: Mevlevī) Sufi Order was to flourish. Naskhī script, partially vowelled, with archaic orthographic features. 25 lines in four columns. The preface to Daftar (Volume) I is written in red in suls script. Decorative text heading with cross-hatching in pinkish red. Thick brownish-cream paper. 279 folios. Binding of a type associated with Seljuk period Anatolia: very dark brown morocco with simple blind central ornamentation.
Sion L40.2/OR8 Persian and Ottoman Turkish. Şerḥ-i Bostān (Sharḥ-i Būstān)
Būstān (The Orchard), the classic didactic poem in Persian by Sa‘dī of Shīrāz (d. 656/1258); with a Turkish paraphrase and commentary by Muṣṭafà Şem‘-ullāh called Şem‘ī (d. ca. 1000/1591-2).
Dated Muḥarram 994/December 1585-January 1586. Copied by İbrāhīm ibn Velī. Small illuminated heading. 250 folios. Red morocco binding with gilt ornamentation; spine damaged, flap lost.
Sion L40.2/OR10 Ottoman Turkish. Muḥammedīye
A didactic mesnevī poem, also known as er-Risālet ül-Muḥammedīye, describing the life, character, achievements and teachings of the Prophet Muḥammad. By Yazıcı-oġlı Meḥemmed (d. 855/1451). Numerous copies survive of this popular devotional work.
Undated: probably later 11th/17th century. Nesih script, fully vowelled. 262 folios. Boards over leather; flap lost.
Sion L40.2/OR12 Ottoman Turkish. Furḳat-nāme
‘The Book of Separatedness’: an account in verse by Halīlī (9th/15th century) of his platonic love for a youth. For this work and author see E.J.W. Gibb, A History of Ottoman Poetry, vol. II (London, 1902), pp. 379-383. The title is a chronogram giving the composition date as 866/1461-2. The text is in mesnevī (rhyming couplets) form, interspersed with lyric verses. Folios 56r-58r contain lines of miscellaneous verse and prose.
Undated: early 12th/18th century. Some folios are tinted yellow. 58 folios. Good Ottoman binding: limp maroon goatskin with floral central medallions.
Islamic law
Sion L40.2/OR9 Ottoman Turkish. Kitāb-i Ferā’iż
A rare treatise on ferā’iż, i.e. the apportionment of legacies, according to the Ḥanafī school of Islamic law. By ‘Abd-ül-Laṭīf ibn Ḥaccı Aḥmed Aḳçāyī.
Undated: 10th/16th or 11th/17th century. Some marginal corrections. Diagrams, with mathematical figures, of the type usually found in such works, on f. 192v and f. 195r (images below). The circular diagram on f. 192v shows the division of inheritances where the only heirs are female, as legislated by the revelation of Qur’an, Sura 4. 195 folios. Binding: Ottoman boards over morocco, with flap.
Muhammad Isa Waley, former Curator of Persian and Turkish Collections, British Library, London
Correspondence, within the archive of Sion College Library, relating to these manuscripts can be found in Sion L40.2/E173
A Monument of Fame 